Wisconsin

If anyone ever tells you their vote doesn't matter...Republicans won control of the Virginia House of Delegates in 2000 and have held it since-- until this week. Before the Nov. 7 election, the GOP held 66 seats and the Democrats occupied just 34.

In his GOP primary against Paul Ryan last year, neo-Nazi multimillionaire Paul Nehlen got wiped out, 57,364 (84.1%) to 10,864 (15.9%), after spending $1,451,041 on the race, just $62,766 out of his own pocket. Ryan crushed him, effortlessly. But this year Nehlen is back and he's already raised $121,850 and has altered his approach slightly-- to appeal to an even smaller but more energized fascist fringe.

Enjoy Randy Bryce on I Love America with Sarah Silverman above. I don't know how many people in southeast Wisconsin watch that show. Or Chelsea Handler's show. Or Pod Save America with former Obama aides Jon Favreau, Dan Pfeiffer, Jon Lovett and Tommy Vietor. All those appearances seemed like a big deal for Randy Bryce after he released his well-received introductory video that caused such excitement among national progressives.

Republican thinkers seem to find it Ok to heap all kinds of deprecations on Trump's head without hesitation. Even when their dissatisfaction and criticism are actually aimed towards Paul Ryan, it appears to be more comfortable for them to just use Trump's name instead.

At the beginning of the video Bernie made when he endorsed Randy Bryce for Congress-- the only congressional endorsement he's done this year-- he whispered to Randy, sotto voce, "Listen to me, don't always listen to the consultants." And I don't know many people who have enough strength of character and personal integrity to listen less to "the consultants" than the two of them: Bernie and Randy, two guys with a mission and who know what they're doing. They take advice and weigh it... and do what they know is the right thing to do. And look at that endorsement.

Digital pills, toxic swill and the ionized atmosphere + this day in history w/the Milli Vanilli scandal and our song of the day by Saintseneca on your Morning Monarchy for November 15, 2017.

Endorsements for candidates by other politicians don't generally mean much. They can even backfire... look what Trump's endorsements did for North Carolina Congresswoman Renee Ellmers. An incumbent, she lost her House seat. And look what happened when Trump endorsed-- multiple times-- Luther Strange. Though he spent millions of dollars more than crackpot pedophile Roy Moore, Trump's endorsement didn't do bupkis for Strange. And his endorsement for Ed Gillespie in Virginia actually caused Gillespie to sink in the polls.

A Wisconsin deputy fatally shot an eighth-grader on an Indian reservation Wednesday, claiming he 14-year-old boy was holding a knife.
But the boy’s grandfather says he was only holding a cellphone and “never had one mean bone in his body.”
Jason Pero, 14, (bottom) was fatally shot on November 8 by an Ashland County Deputy who claims he had a knife.

Trump always denies his high-profile bankruptcies, half a dozen of which were front page headlines in New York and, of course, Atlantic City, over and over again. His denials, precursors of the lies that mark every day of his illegitimate presidency, were accepted at face value by the rubes in Wyoming, Oklahoma, West Virginia, Kentucky, North Dakota and Alabama.

If you know Randy Bryce, you know what I'm about to relate is something that would never/could never come from him. But a DC observer told me recently that he found himself at an event with Bryce. He noticed that lots of men in suits and ties were angling to get selfies of themselves with Randy.